COLD IN JULY
On Blu-Ray Oct. 6th, 2014
Jim Mickle’s neo-noir “Cold in July” starts out with a white hot premise that keeps you glued to the edge of your seat for a good 50 minutes or so. Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) is awoken by his wife, Ann (Vinessa Shaw) in the middle of the night after she hears a strange noise in the house. We can see that Richard isn’t excited about walking down a dark hallway with his gun pointed straight ahead. But right away we get the sense that Richard is a family man who will do whatever he needs to do to protect his family. Protect he does, as he winds up shooting the masked intruder in his living room and leaving a grotesque reminder of the would be thief on his couch and living room wall.
The next day, Richard appears understandably wracked with guilt, and Hall nicely underplays the psychological complexities of a man thrown into his position. From walking around in a haze to ordering a beer at breakfast where the waitress questions “Isn’t it a little early for that?” and Richard growls “Not today,” while staring off into space. Things also seem strained at home, when Richard impulse buys a couch to replace the bloodstained older couch and Ann gets pissed off as he didn’t consult her.
The movie really kicks into high gear though when Richard is confronted in his car by an almost ghostly Russell (Sam Shepard) who appears out of nowhere and delivers an ominous barely veiled threat to Richard’s family. It becomes apparent that Russell is the father of the masked intruder who Richard shot and killed. The tension in the air is palpable and stomach churning and Hall allows us to feel just how queasy it feels to be in those particular cowboy boots. Things get worse and worse for the Dane family when they find an open window in their young son’s bedroom and another time when the boy’s bed is covered in unused bullets. Then, unfortunately almost out of nowhere a second act twist happens (no spoilers here), that completely throws the entire premise we’ve been sold and bought into, nearly away and an all too familiar movie we’ve seen many times before begins playing.
Besides Vinessa Shaw’s competent but largely forgettable thankless wife role, the performances are all strong. Although it’s pretty much Michael C. Hall and Sam Shepard’s show until Don Johnson shows up in the middle of the second act and almost takes it away before turning his “Fixer” character Jim Bob into a cartoonish macho fantasy. Which, in essence is basically what the whole film devolves into – a non-supsenseful actioner driven by cool John Carpenteresque brooding synth music filled with not-so-clever one liners that tough guys say in Hollywood Action movies. “Cold in July” feels less like an Indie Thriller and more like a stylish cash grab that leaves whatever heart it still had left in the colorful neon shoot’em up that the good old boys finish the bad guys off in.
I can imagine another version of the film where if the filmmakers had the courage to stick with the original premise and let it really come to boil, which may have been considered a Texas Crime Drama classic. As it is, it’s just another formerly buzzed about “Indie” minor success story that will be forgotten like any old tumbleweed that blows by.
